Western Turkey Tactics

By Darron McDougal

The author claimed this western tom fresh off the roost. The gobbler was roosted with hens in a giant dead cottonwood tree in the middle of the prairie. (Photo by Rebecca McDougal)

Faint, distant gobbles gained volume each time I scratched my slate call. In mere minutes, as my bride, Becca, rolled footage, an angry Merriam’s gobbler confronted my jake decoy, which was positioned six yards away from our hide.

I drew back when his head disappeared behind his fan feathers. Then, I held my draw until he re-exposed his head. Once my pin found red, I squeezed the trigger. My broadhead sliced his neck wide open, and death followed almost instantly.

Sounds like your typical bow-bird success story, but that wouldn’t be an accurate assessment. Just 15 minutes earlier, we watched the tom from our Jeep, which was parked a half-mile away. Suddenly, the tom traveled across the wide-open prairie toward a parcel of public land. We hightailed it there, hid the Jeep and popped up the blind. That same gobbler answered my first series of yelps. In other words, we’d barely beat him to the public ground.

If you’re a first-timer to bowhunting turkeys west of the Missouri River, let me suggest that what you know about hunting the Eastern subspecies proves only moderately beneficial out west when chasing Merriam’s turkeys.

Let’s review some characteristics of western turkeys and some tips that can improve your odds of bow-bagging one during spring.

Find Roosting Sites

Prairie turkeys choose roosting sites that are far different from what an Eastern and Midwest bird prefers. Giant cottonwood trees—even dead ones—amongst a sea of otherwise open ground are likely prospects. A first glance tells you there are no turkeys within miles, but a closer look often reveals otherwise.

During the same spring bowhunting trip referenced above, Becca and I were scouting one evening for a place to notch my second tag, and as we parked the Jeep 600 yards away from a giant dead cottonwood tree on public land, she exclaimed, “There are turkeys in that tree!” I questioned it, but after raising my binos and looking for myself, I confirmed there were indeed several birds roosting in the tree, including a longbeard that I tagged early the following morning.

Wooded draws, sheltered from the wind, are also likely roost sites. These can be subtle-to severe terrain breaks. Also examine tree-dotted river bottoms for roosts. The least-intrusive way to determine if birds are roosting in them is to watch from afar with optics. Both dawn and dusk missions are equally productive. Another method is to sit within earshot and listen for gobbles before dawn or right at dusk.

Once you find an active roost site, learn how the birds enter them in the late afternoons and leave them in the mornings.

Successfully bowhunting turkeys on the western prairies often requires out-of-the-box thinking. The author nearly looked right by this turkey-loaded dead cottonwood tree until his wife pointed it out. (Photo by Rebecca McDougal)

Learn Their Routes

As I mentioned earlier, western turkeys, aside from those practically tame “yard birds” that inhabit ranch pastures, travel great distances between necessities. In other words, setting up 100 yards from the roost isn’t always the best approach. While western birds sometimes loiter near the roost after fly-down, many times they hit the ground running toward their first destination, often somewhere with hens and food. If you’re not positioned along their travel route, even the most enticing decoy spread might not coax a tom in for a top-pin shot.

If time allows, take a morning or even a day to study their routines from a distance. This intel helps you more effectively choose a location for your ground blind. Then, move in the following day to capitalize. For a first-time western turkey hunter, sacrificing a full day of hunting in order to scout is often wise.

Sacrifice a day of hunting to find roosting sites and to learn tendencies. (Photo by Darron McDougal)

Call Loudly

The prairies can be incredibly windy, and when they are, ditch soft tree yelps and purrs, opting instead for boisterous yelps and energetic cuts. If you don’t, wind can supersede your calls, leaving them unheard. Don’t be afraid to reach out there.

Mouth calls are my favorite, but if you haven’t mastered them, look to box calls for additional volume and reach. When winds howls, call as loudly as possible within the realm of realism. I mean this: Don’t call so loudly that you become sloppy and produce scraping and scratching noises.

Know the Terrain

When a game plan doesn’t pan out, sitting stagnant in one location all day long will most often produce low success rates. When gobblers disappear, knowing the terrain and how to travel it undetected can keep you in the game. This is true back East, too, except that the West often has more cuts and draws that hide you as you move to a another setup.

To win at this, you must know the lay of the land. If you don’t, you’ll likely spook birds as you make your aggressive moves. Knowing when to move is equally important to knowing how to move.

When Time’s Ticking, Get Aggressive

If hunting from blinds doesn’t seal the deal and your hunt is nearly over, you probably have little to nothing to lose by deploying an aggressive hunting style. Options include ditching the blind for a run-and-gun approach, which allows you to set up ultra-close to the roost (provided that you get set up early and quietly enough). Or, you can attempt the fanning technique. Before you try this, know your surroundings and the possibility that other gun-toting hunters could mistake your fan or decoy for a real bird, creating a dicey to even deadly situation. If you have any inkling whatsoever that another hunter could be around, it’s unwise to hide behind a decoy.

In areas where you know it’s safe, fanning can be dynamite. When fanning, it’s generally best to close with 150 yards of a gobbler before showing him the fan or decoy. Once again, use the terrain to your advantage.

During a western turkey hunt, even the best blind setup doesn’t guarantee success. You must make the shot, and to do so, you must stay sharp with your bow throughout the hunt with a turkey target like this Rinehart Woodland Series Turkey. (Photo by Darron McDougal)

Bag that Tom

When traveling to bowhunt western turkeys, accuracy is a key to success. Dial your bow in before you depart, but don’t forget to shoot arrows before and during your hunt. I always recommend shooting at a lifelike turkey target if possible. My favorite is the new Rinehart Woodland Series Turkey. It’s a small target, and I believe there’s great merit to the aim-small/miss-small adage. All this practice should culminate in a well-placed arrow when that Merriam’s gobbler comes booming into your decoy spread.

Jump the Border

When success comes early and you have a few days to burn, consider your options. First, you can go sightseeing. In South Dakota, this could mean a trip to Mount Rushmore or Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Pack your camera for events like this.

Another option is to hop a border to hunt another state. I did this during a recent South Dakota hunt. After arrowing gobblers in only two days of hunting, we packed the Jeep and went to Nebraska. While Nebraska offers the option to purchase multiple tags, I bought just one, not wanting to bite off more than I could chew. I filled that tag within two days of hunting a completely new location, making the border hop a fun, worthwhile move.

If you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind adventure, a western turkey outing with bow in hand is tough to beat. Apply the tips I’ve discussed here, and you could bag a tom or two and have a great time doing so.